Leanne Wood

Leanne Wood (13 December 1971-) was the leader of Plaid Cymru from 16 March 2012, succeeding Ieuan Wyn Jones. She was also a Welsh Assemblywoman from 2003, representing South Wales Central from 1 May 2003 to 6 April 2016 (succeeding Pauline Jarman and preceding Neil McEvoy) and Rhondda from 6 May 2016 (succeeding Leighton Andrews).

Biography
Leanne Wood was born in Llwynypia, Glamorgan, Wales on 13 December 1971, and she was raised in Penygraig. She graduated from the University of Glamorgan, and she worked as a probation officer and a social policy lecturer at Cardiff University. Wood joined the socialist Plaid Cymru party in 1991 and was involved in local politics, and she was elected to the Welsh Assembly in 2003 as a member of the Welsh Assembly from South Wales Central. In 2007, she was arrested for protesting against the installation of British missiles at Faslane naval base in Scotland, and she was also active with revealing economic injustices in Wales, such as the discovery that 1,000 employers in Wales paid thousands of workers under minimum wage. In 2012, she became the leader of Plaid Cymru, and she stood for socialist, republican, and nationalist principles. In 2016, her party had a strong showing along the western coast of Wales, becoming the second-largest party in the country behind the Welsh Labor Party and overtaking the Welsh Conservative Party.